TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, January 24. The volume of remittances to Uzbekistan may grow by 10-12 percent and reach $12-12.5 billion in 2024, Trend reports.
"Creation of additional conditions for labor migrants, increase in bilateral agreements in this direction, demand for labor abroad will serve as a factor in maintaining the dynamics of migration flows and the remittances as a consequence," Uzbekistan's Central Bank said.
According to the bank's data, about 16 percent of the total aggregate income of the population in 2018-2023 came from remittances of labor migrants.
The Central Bank notes that current labor migration flows are mainly concentrated in Russia and Kazakhstan, which account for the bulk of remittance inflows. At the same time, there is a gradual geographical diversification of such flows.
By the end of 2023, the share of remittances from Russia decreased from 87 percent in 2022 to 78 percent. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the number of migration registration of Uzbek citizens decreased from 2.9 million to 1.7 million or by 43 percent in the first half of 2023.
The volume of remittances from other countries increased by 14 percent in 2023. The Central Bank does not rule out that the policy of the authorities to diversify cooperation in the field of labor migration in the medium and long term will lead to changes in the structure of remittance inflows.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan will introduce anti-fraud systems for monitoring and preventing fraudulent transactions in banks and payment systems in 2024-2025.
The new project calls for the implementation of biometric identification of clients at the Central Bank, as well as the implementation of a system for identifying data in these financial institutions using SIM cards and the IMEI code of a mobile device.